Philips Momentum 436M6VBPAB review: look into the future

Despite some flaws, this big monitor is an excellent choice with true hdr

By David van DantzigSaturday 28 July 2018 04:59

Introduction

Hdr is a significant improvement over the old flat display, whether it be a television or a monitor. In the TV world, there is a growing supply of suitable products, but in the monitor land hdr is still quite scarce. Certainly models that offer 'true' hdr are rare. Philips is introducing a 43-inch monitor that does offer this, the Momentum 436M6VBPAB. In this article we are going to share and discuss the test results of this monitor.

For ‘true’ hdr a monitor at least needs a high (peak) brightness and a wide colour space. The Philips Momentum 436M6VBPAB promises both: with at least 1000 nits of brightness and support for the dci-p3 colour space it qualifies for the DisplayHDR 1000 criterium of the Vesa standards organization. Philips also reports that the monitor has received the UHD Premium certificate from the UHD Alliance. Now that all of the standards and certificates are out of the way we would like to get back to the facts: brightness, colour space and colour depth are important.

Philips promises that the Momentum 436M6 offers all of these aspects and more. They position the monitor as an ideal solution for a fervent console user. Certainly Xbox One-adepts should appreciate the monitor, as it supports Freesync which is something this console should also have support for since the Spring update. PS4-officionados can probably find enough that appeals to them as well as hdr has been integrated into the console for some time now. Of course this big monitor also has to appeal to PC enthusiasts. After all, we do not have that much choice when it comes to hdr monitors for the time being.

Cost of the monitor

Before we take a closer look at the monitor we have to look at the price. The official price of the Momentum 436M6VBPAB is 710 pounds / 799 euros; at the time of writing the price in our Price Comparison is slightly higher. However, as availability improves, the price will most likely decrease. Philips initially promised two versions, one 'hdr600' and one 'hdr1000', but the first one has not made it to stores. The company does run an 'hdr400' version in China with considerably less backlight, but will not release it in Europe. As far as we are concerned, the amount of monitors that understand the hdr10 signal, but do not do anything else with it, is already sufficient, which is why we can only encourage that decision.

Back to the price of 710 pounds / 799 euros, is this expensive? When looking at the competitors in the 40-inch+ segment it is certainly not cheap: no matter how bizarre it would have sounded in 2012, you can now easily find a 40-inch (or bigger) 4K device for about 445 pounds / 500 euros. Approximately 530 pounds / 600 euros is a more common price, but this Philips still costs a lot more than that. Fort this price you get a panel based on va-technology with, as mentioned earlier, particularly high peak brightness and a large colour space. If you want those things on a television you have to pay even more – and this is what Philips initially compared this monitor to. As we will find out the monitor has quite a few things going for it, which makes the comparison with a television even more favourable for this monitor. In short: we will find out whether or not it is worth its price at the end of this review.

In short

Philips delivers a true hdr monitor with the Momentum 436M6VBPAB: 1000 nits peak brightness and a wide colour space. It combines these base values with excellent response times, no input lag and finely tuned color quality. This makes it an excellent choice for anyone who is looking for an hdr monitor for the game console or PC.